The first step to creating a language is to work out how it sounds. What appeals to you? Do you like the round, flowing sound of French, or the solid syllables of German? Maybe you prefer the no-nonsense accent of Russian to the exotic thrills and trills of Spanish. Go on Youtube and listen to samples of various languages. One fun game is to look up foreign-dubbed Disney songs. "A Whole New World" sounds lovely in Spanish... not so much in Dutch. And Scar from the Lion King sounds way scarier in Turkish! Here are a few links for you to try:
A Whole New World (Aladin) - Spanish
Be Prepared (Lion King) - Turkish
Kiss the Girl (Little Mermaid) - French
Honor To Us All (Mulan) - Mandarin
Once Upon a Dream (Sleeping Beauty) - Arabic
Just Can't Wait to be King (Lion King) - Hindi
You don't even have to pick a real world language to emulate if you don't want to, just start making nonsense sounds. A quick tip here: it's best to do this when you're alone and won't be disturbed. Don't start sound-experimenting at a party or while waiting in the lobby before your job interview. You probably won't get the job, and you may get escorted out of the building. I also wouldn't recommend doing this in a cafe or on the bus, unless you want to look like a crazy person. But who knows? Perhaps that creepy guy with the lazy eye who babbles on the bus is actually busy language-ing.
So now that that's out of the way, let's get started! Make some vowel sounds. Aaaah, Weeee, Uo-uo-uo, Uh-wa-wa... Imagine a baby who hasn't learned to talk yet. Babbling is how babies practice and learn, so try it yourself! At first you will probably feel a little weird, but once you loosen up (think of the Tin Man and his oil can) your creative juices will start to flow.
Now add in a few consonants. Babies generally learn the labial consonants first, like B and M. (Why do you think the word for "Mother" in almost every language in the world has an M in it?) Maybe try a little L, D or G. Baba du? Wom baba long gong mim! Don't get too crazy with consonants yet, because right now we're focusing on vowels.
Experiment with your sound. Invent new vowels, hold your mouth and tongue in new positions. Combine vowels to make dipthongs or even tripthongs! (I'm not talking about underwear here, a dipthong is a combination of two vowel sounds in the same consonant. Say the words "sky" or "quest" very slowly, and you'll see what I mean.) The more new things you try, the more possibilities you will uncover.
STOP reading now, and do this babbly-sound thing for about 5 minutes. Like I said, you will probably feel a bit silly at first, but do it anyway. DO IT!
Here is where you start making some decisions that will affect how your language will sound. Make a list with three columns. In the first column, write down your vowel sounds. Make sure you note the SOUND*, not just the letter. Write down an example word if you need to. If you just write A, that could mean almost anything. Is it like the "pure" fAther sound of Spanish or Italian, or the long AAh of Hindi? Maybe it's the cAt sound of Midwestern American English? If there isn't a one-to-one correspondence between letter and sound, decide on a way to distinguish them. Maybe use two or more letters (such as aa, eu, waw) or diacritical marks (like ö, ê or ã), or any combination thereof. As long as you can remember what means what, you're good to go.
Once you have your first-draft list of vowels, start listing your consonants in the second column.
*A useful tool for this is the International Phonic Alphabet, hereafter IPA. Personally, I don't use the IPA very much, but for some it could make things a lot easier and clearer. I won't get into the IPA here, but if you're interested, I encourage you to look it up on Wikipedia.
STOP again here, and make your list. Trust me, it will make things a lot easier later on.
Part 2.2
Sounds fall into a several phonetic categories that would be useful to know. The names are technical, but not particularly difficult.
First there is voiced and unvoiced. This is pretty straight forward, but it's worth mentioning. Many voiced consonants have an unvoiced counterpart, such as B/P, G/K, and Z/S. Your language may even have more than just the two voicing options! Some languages don't make a strong distinction between voiced and unvoiced consonants at all.
Labial consonants are those that you form with your lips. These are B and P in English. Will your language have both sounds? Is there a difference? Dental consonants are formed with the teeth, such as TH in THank or THan. So what do you think a labiodental consonant would be? Perhaps V, or F. There are many other ways to describe consonants, such as fricative, nasal, plosive, etc., and while it is helpful to learn these categories, it is not necessary.
So now you have your list of consonants. Before we go on, take a good hard look at your list. If it is a very long list, you may want to consider striking a few letters out. Not all languages utilize all sounds. Japanese doesn't have an L/R, Spanish doesn't have a SH, and Mandarin doesn't have a V. Choosing to EXCLUDE certain sounds is a useful and interesting way to give your language a sound-shape. If you decide to kill a consonant, put an X through it, but don't completely obliterate its existence. The more information you can keep in front of you, the easier it will be to keep it all together in later steps.
You can also include (or exclude) certain consonant clusters here, if your language allows them. English allows ST to STart a word, but Spanish does not. (That's why you hear Latinos saying "ehstreet" and "ehstudy".) English does not allow the consonant cluster "tps", but maybe your language does. This will further foster your fledgling language-feeling.
Syllables are the building blocks of words, so the next logical step is to decide how your syllables work. A syllable needs a nucleus, usually a vowel (V). You can try making consonant-only syllables, but I find them difficult to work with. Around that vowel will be optional initial and final elements, typically consonants (C). "Bob" is a good example of a simple CVC syllable.
Languages vary greatly in their syllable structure, and this really affects the overall sound of the language. English is very flexible with syllable makeup. A syllable can begin with a consonant or cluster, contain more than one vowel, then end with another consonant or cluster, or any combination thereof. Jook at the one-word "Scribes"; this is a CCCVVCC syllable!
Japanese on the other hand, is very restrictive with syllable structure, allowing only V or CV syllables. (One may argue that there are a few CVV syllables, but that's splitting hairs.) Compare how English and Japanese sound. Syllable structure affects a lot of things later down the road, such as timing, stress, mora, and even grammar!
STOP now and experiment with your syllable structure.
This is where the fun starts. In your third column, start making a list of POSSIBLE words. You don't need to know what they mean yet, but if you are absolutely set on making "Gzur" the word for the ticklish part of your inner elbow, then by all means write it down!
There are many ways to do this. One of my favorites is to just write down as many short non-sense words as quickly as I can. When you reach your space or time limit, go back over your list, and correct or modify what you've come up with. Maybe you accidentally used the sound AY but your language doesn't have dipthongs (combined-vowel sounds), or SKROOT but you decided against triple-consonant clusters. You will have to go back and modify those words.
Part 2.3
Now put down your pen and go get a snack. Let the list lie fallow for a little while. Let the sounds bounce around your head while you spread your peanut butter, or walk the dog, do your homework, or whatever other real-life responsibilities you need to fulfill. Perhaps your sound-ideas will change a little. That's okay, you can always change your own rules. (Just make sure to go back and re-check what you already have to make sure they all still fit.) Write down any other cool word-sounds you may come up with throughout the day. Keep doing this until you have a pretty solid idea of your language-sound, and a nice long list of 20-ish example words.
Patience is definitely a virtue in language crafting. Don't rush through these steps. The more time you spend on each step, changing and tweeking things, the more natural your language will seem later on. So when you're good and ready, move on to Part 3.
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